https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1479845&p=24035233&hilit=dulles#p24035233

22 hours ago

Tomorrow marks the 1-year anniversary of the opening of the Silver line extension to Dulles airport. How has it been received?

Silver Line (Washington Metro)



A Silver Line train at Loudoun Gateway station in February 2023

The Silver Line is a rapid transit line of the Washington Metro system, consisting of 34 stations in Loudoun County, Fairfax County and Arlington County, Virginia, Washington, D.C., as well as Prince George's County, Maryland. The Silver Line runs from Ashburn in Virginia to Downtown Largo in Maryland. Five stations, from both lines' eastern terminus at Downtown Largo to Benning Road, are shared with the Blue Line alone; thirteen stations, from Stadium–Armory to Rosslyn, with both the Orange Line and Blue Lines; and five stations from Court House to East Falls Church with the Orange Line alone. Only the five stations of Phase 1, which began service on July 26, 2014, and the six stations of Phase 2, which began service on November 15, 2022, are exclusive to the Silver Line.

The 11.7-mile (18.8 km) portion of the Silver Line between its split from the Orange Line and Wiehle–Reston East is entirely in Fairfax County, Virginia and was constructed as Phase 1 of the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project. Phase 2 expanded the line another 11.5 miles (18.5 km) to Ashburn in Loudoun County via Dulles International Airport. The $6.8 billion 41.1-mile-long (66.1 km) Silver Line is Metro's largest expansion by route mileage since its inception in 1976.

{snip}

Phase 2: Dulles extension

{snip}

In June 2022, interim general manager Andy Off announced that WMATA was moving closer to announcing a completion date and expected to takeover the Phase 2 project in the next coming weeks. On June 23, 2022, WMATA announced that it had taken over control of the Phase 2 project from the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. Final testing of Phase 2 was scheduled to occur throughout early October via the actual running of empty trains throughout its course, and Metro expected all safety certification for this expansion to be completed around the same time before it finally opened for service. On September 22, Metro's board of directors voted unanimously in a meeting to authorize current general manager Randy Clarke to determine the opening date for Phase 2. Simulated service testing began operating along the Phase 2 tracks between October 3 and 17, 2022.

Following these simulated runs, WMATA announced that the extension would likely open before Thanksgiving, with one final impediment towards opening of service being a shortage of available 7000-series trains that could service it after a derailment near the Rosslyn station a year prior put most of them out of service, with plans to restore them hampered by conflicts with the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission.

The extension opened on November 15, 2022, with an opening ceremony held at Dulles International Airport station.

{snip}